#21 Charlie – Mao did not fight the Japanese. In fact, he consistently ordered his unit commanders to avoid them and instead concentrate on weakening the nationalist troops who were doing all the heavy lifting. Even while China was being invaded he considered Chiang Kai-Shek to be Enemy Number 1. Some of his commanders ignored the orders and launched offensives against the Japanese, or cooperated with the Nationalists, but Mao always squelched it. He wanted to preserve his forces for the eventual showdown with Chiang.

After the war of course, with typical totalitarian revisionism, he invented the myth that the ChiComs fought vigorously against the invaders.

Since the present Chinese government derives its legitimacy from Mao, don’t expect a true account of the war to spread in China any time soon. All totalitarian states need to manipulate symbols to retain legitimacy. Lying about history is small potatoes to the people who’d send tanks in to slaughter their own children.